A look into the heart of things: Awakening to miracles

Miracles don’t just happen, but exist in you and around you.

Miracles don’t just happen, but exist in you and around you. You are a miracle.

If I’m going to mention one by one about the miracles you will encounter on a daily basis, then it may take you very long to finish reading this blog post. To those who can’t see miracles as well as the ones who don’t believe in them in the first place, then it’s about time you should open your eyes and start looking deeper into the heart of things.

I’m not going to name every single miracle you may encounter along the way, but only the important ones. You will be surprised to find out how many miracles there are to happen each passing day out of the things you simply ignore or failed to take notice of.

THE MIRACLE OF SIGHT

To be able to see the natural beauty of the world is a miracle. Your eyes can do many wonders with or without yourself knowing it. Considered as the window of your soul, the eye was able to reach the farthest distance of the known universe than anything or anyone from Earth.

THE MIRACLE OF HEARING

What started with the skin and cartilage that branched out as the two ears outside your head is the miracle of hearing. It was a perfectly engineered device; from the collecting of sounds, to the conversion of these sounds to hydraulic pressure, then sent to the cochlea, and finally to the brain for interpretation and response.

THE MIRACLE OF LIFE

How a baby develops in the womb requires no less than a miracle to happen. Each person is unique from birth having a DNA structure of about 1:400, 000, 000, 000 or 400 trillion chance of existing. If you can’t see it as a miracle, then you might be joking.

THE MIRACLE OF RIGHT THINKING

It is all about believing you can do the things you were purposed to do. Everything you want to do something about starts in the mind. You have got to come up with the right way of thinking first, and the rest will follow.

Self-respect could be built in these five simple ways

Starting from your appearance down to your other distinctive features, it is important for you to accept them all in a positive way.

There are times in your life when you feel like you’re worthless, inferior, and inutile. Such a feeling about yourself is bringing you down each time and closer to where you can see nothing but your inadequacies alone. It’s like a pestilence that stalks in the darkness for you. It strikes like a plague, seeking destruction, crippling your every sense of sanity. If you’re experiencing these things, then you’re suffering from a lack of self-respect. I hope these five simple ways on how to build self-respect could help you out anyway:

ACCEPT YOURSELF FOR WHO AND WHAT YOU ARE

Starting from your appearance down to your other distinctive features, it is important for you to accept them all in a positive way. You’re doing this in order for you to develop a good self-concept.

BE REALISTIC

You are not perfect, that’s a fact of life, and so as each one of us. You cannot change that fact no matter what. But you can do something about it. Something that will help you improve who you are as a person, what you already have, and what you’re capable of doing.

BE A PROBLEM SOLVER, NOT A PROBLEM SEEKER

Instead of focusing on the things you’re not best at doing, do what you are so passionate about. In this way, you’re becoming one those who offer a solution to what could have been a problem.

CREATE YOUR OWN PERSONAL OPINION ABOUT YOURSELF

Don’t be easily swayed by the negative opinions other people are saying about you. But that should not mean you’re not going to welcome constructive criticisms either. As long as you know you’re doing the right thing for yourself, go for it. You know yourself better and more than anyone else could, so why bother?

ENGAGE OR PARTICIPATE IN A TASK OR ACTIVITY THAT PROMOTES OR ENCOURAGES GENERAL WELL BEING AND SELF WORTH

The moment you blew out that one little candle on your first birthday cake, you’re learning how to build self-respect. It all starts in the crucial years of your childhood. But what you can do for today as a grown up adult could never be discounted though.

How to de-stress your life in five simple ways

Go out and look for a place where you can be one with nature.

Relaxation is a part of our daily human needs. We need to relax in order for our body and mind to cope up and recuperate from the negative effects caused by the stresses of life. I’m listing down five, yes just five, although there are lots of ways on how you could de-stress your life.

TREAT YOURSELF TO A RELAXING ENVIRONMENT

Go out and look for a place where you can be one with nature. A forest park is best, but any a garden with more trees and ornaments, or a clean island beach resort would do. Nature is proven and tested to be one of the best healing factors known since ancient times.

EAT COMFORT FOODS

A bowl of warm stewed beef with spices can bring you comfort. It improves your mood and relaxes your senses. But not only a bowl of beef stewed will do, but any soup dishes rightly cooked and served hot as well. And hey, don’t even set aside complex carbohydrate foods in your diet as they can have a soothing effect in your brain. These foods will do something to boost your low serotonin level and change your mood for the better.

TAKE TIME TO MEDITATE AND PRAY

Meditation is one great way to relax. And while you meditate, you also have to pray. Making it a habit, this combination will do wonders to your mind and body. Meditation can be done anywhere you feel comfortable to be with at.

In my case, I often do it at the comfort of my own room. I will simply be lying flat on the bed, with the door and windows opened wide so that fresh air and light can enter, and closed my eyes. During the whole session, I would think of any good things that happened in my life, a beautiful place, or a childhood experience I would always want to recall, and then the rest would feel like you’re an outsider watching yourself from one of the farthest corners of the universe.

The moment I’m back to myself and to the real world, I would then pray. I pray for myself, for other people, and for the whole world. I pray that, in spite of the negative things happening in the world, in the end, things can get better.

LISTEN TO LAID BACK OR CLASSICAL MUSIC

Listening to music is one way to relax. But not all types of music are relaxing though. Some music, which is closer to noise than melody, could even make your already bad mood to get worse. Settle down on the laid back music, or why not try the classical, and the mellow. They will not only give you a very relaxing experience, but as well refresh your mind of good memories from long ago.

EXERCISE DAILY

When you exercise, your body releases a hormone called endorphins which could help reduce stress. With 30 minutes of your time each day spent on exercising your body, is more than enough to help you out with stress. A hot bath afterwards could help you calm your swollen, fatigued, muscles.

Feed your spiritual hunger with the nourishment of God’s righteousness

In your darkest hours, you will have this great appetite for God’s presence.

A soul can get nourishment from praying, preaching the Gospel and become a good example to others, meditating, and, most importantly, obeying God’s commandments.

There comes a time in your life when you feel like you wanted something different. You feel like there’s this emptiness inside you have to fill in with something. You look for more, but more than just what the physical satisfaction you can find in things.

What you’re feeling about is a spiritual hunger. You have reached the point of maturity in your life where a soul seeks its own fulfillment. You have to welcome it and to gladly nurture such a transition.

Spiritual hunger usually emerges from two important happenings in your life: in your darkest hours where you feel like there’s little hope or no hope at all, and in the summit of your success where you have achieved what you want to achieve in life.

But why should you feel about such a longing? Why can’t just all the good things in this world fill in the gap? Why the strong need to strive for what is beyond the material?

In your darkest hours, you will have this great appetite for God’s presence. Your very soul knows what it needs to nourish itself. “I am the bread of life,” said Jesus in John chapter 6, verse 35. “He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

On the other hand, despite a man being at the summit of his greatest achievements in life and of his illustrious career could still be starving spiritually. Material things are only temporary–something which you will never find satisfaction for. No matter how great your achievements in life or how much money you are making, you will always want more.

Your spiritual hunger is triggered by the fact that you need something to nourish your soul to the point of satisfying you and, where the soul knows what best food it has to feed for itself, to never feel hungry again.

Aside from obeying God’s commandments, a soul can get nourishment from praying, preaching the Gospel and become a good example to others, and meditating.

10 things you will never regret doing at any point of your life

Prayer is a way of surrendering yourself to a Great Power which can make all things possible.

“If I could make a difference,” said former Philippine president Corazon Aquino in one of her public speeches. “I will do it regardless of circumstances. Otherwise, I will always regret not having done something when I could have.”

This quote by the late Mrs. Aquino has inspired me to write the 10 things you will never regret doing at any point of your life:

• Plant a tree. Our planet needs more trees to produce more oxygen which is vital to all living organisms including humans. It can also help minimize global warming caused by the enhanced greenhouse effect which is the unnatural rise of temperature in the Earth’s atmosphere.
• Lift a weight. Weight lifting is one form of physical exercise that can slow down the process of muscle degeneration caused by aging. It can also motivate you to eat right and stay fit.
• Volunteer. Whether it is a clean-up drive in a community where you belong or in the distribution of relief goods to calamity-stricken areas, keep the spirit of volunteerism always alive in you and you’ll surely never regret a moment doing it.
• Read a Bible. The Bible is a manual on how to live the righteous, happy, just, and productive life. Reading and studying every page of it is a soul-transforming experience.
• Be a vegan. Plant food is the best food. It is the original diet God has instructed man to consume as food (Read Genesis 1: 29). The result was amazing. People who lived before the Great Flood (purely vegan diet) tend to live longer than the ones who came to live afterwards (the introduction of meat in the human diet as all green things were destroyed in the face of the Earth and has to wait for them to grow again).
• Learn a new language. It is one way of knowing other people’s culture, customs, and beliefs. Once you came to know other people, you will understand about them. And once understanding is established among people, there will be peace and harmony.
• Try story-telling to kids. Story-telling is, in my humble opinion, one way to leave a lasting impression among the little children’s minds. Make sure that the story you’re going to share to them is one that’s filled with many good lessons that can impact upon their young minds in a positive way.
• Donate. You don’t need to give what you don’t have or what you can’t afford. A single peso (if that’s only you can afford to give at the moment) is enough to show that you care for the people who badly need it most (in war-zone areas, refugee camps, in areas hit by a natural disaster, and anyone who needs a helping hand). If you’ll qualify, donating a blood is one noble act you can do to save a life.
• Smile even to strangers you have met for the first time. It will create an impression of approachability to the people you had projected it with. It’s a gesture that invites camaraderie and friendship.
• Pray. Don’t think about whether or not your prayers will be answered. Instead, consider it as a way of surrendering yourself to a Great Power which can make all things possible. More things are wrought by prayers, as what Alfred, Lord Tennyson said, than this world dreams of. So make it a habit to pray always.

Why are the little things a big deal in life?

Little things are like fruits that ripen in a microclimate-themed tree of someone’s life.

“It’s the little things that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”–John Wooden

Because they are important and yet so few a people who are willing to do with or take notice of;

Because they mean a lot; because they are like fruits that ripen in a microclimate-themed

Tree of someone’s life: the birds came, fought their way onto the colored details

That swung into view for what will translate between the senses and as the hands that need something on which to hold.

Some thoughts to ponder on love and relationships

It is impossible for a relationship to grow if there’s nothing to nurture it like a caring hand full of love.

The relationship you are establishing with other people is dependent on the relationship you had with yourself. The old adage that says “do not do unto others what you don’t want others do unto you” will always apply here.

Human relationships are supposed to be simple until someone comes along the way to complicate or ruin it. That person could be anyone else and, yes, even you. Of course, there’s no such thing as a perfect relationship. But perfection is not the main thing here.

A relationship is a process by which you have got to do something to fix it on a daily basis. If there’s not anything to it for you to fix about, then you’re in to something unreal. Imperfections are what will make you feel about the need for something to improve, grow, and become better.

Where there are relationships, there should also be love. It is impossible for a relationship to grow if there’s nothing to nurture it like a caring hand full of love. Love is sufficient enough to do it all. Yet this is where most people failed to do in a relationship.

Love is all about the constant giving out of your own self to the other person; it must be unconditional. Of course, you don’t need to promise your lover anything; you can’t give what you don’t have, can you? But your generosity towards the other person is more than enough to show your love in action.

When you love someone, you’re giving that person a portion or the whole of yourself. You’ll never run out of something good you can share with that person, and you’re not doing it in exchange of anything. You won’t demand nor would you even think of being given the same or more of what you had given your lover either. That’s a selfless love.

It’s not love when you play it safe, when you’re afraid to risk, when you’re making conditions, when you’re impatient and can’t even sacrifice a thing or two for what’s needed to be fixed up in a relationship, when you’re selfish, and the list goes on.

The way to knowing your inner self better is the way to happiness

Listen to your inner voice telling you something. Feel the positive vibration it wants you to radiate.

It is important that you know what you want to do with your life. The way to knowing your inner self better is the way to happiness.

You alone can make yourself happy. It’s all in the mind, the way you think. You can always choose to be happy or you can as well choose to be sad.

HAPPINESS DEFINED

Happiness is a state by which you have to take control of what your mind interprets; by doing so, see to it that you’re cultivating the positive emotions and not the negative ones. In other words, you have to direct your mind by bringing your thoughts to something that your general well being can benefit a lot from. It’s a choice you’re making for yourself. And as you choose, you decide.

Its definition may differ from one person to another, but yet ends up in the same direction everyone is heading: the Self. You have got to build happiness yourself.

A MATTER OF CHOICE

The world is wide enough to contain the things that can either help you grow up productively or stunt your growth. What you will choose to add to yourself matters a lot. So choose the things that help you grow and one that is making yourself useful.

LIVING ON PURPOSE

It is important that you know what you want to do with your life. The way to knowing your inner self better is the way to happiness. And once you have accomplished that kind of thing, you would realize there’s more to it than what happiness can only bring or offer.

If you have no idea what you’re going to do with your life or why you’re here on Earth, chances are you may stumble upon things that can only complicate your life.

Or you might become a living dead. How could that be? To live without a purpose, although you’re alive and may have everything to sustain your physical needs at the moment, is like living without something to live for.

Know your purpose in life; it is through such a way that true happiness develops. And the good news is, once you have established that kind of thing and to successfully infuse it well into your system, no one can take it away from you.

LISTEN TO YOUR INNER SELF

Take time to be alone, quite, slow down, and communicate with your inner self. Find your inner voice telling you something. Feel the positive vibration it wants you to radiate. Choose to be happy.

Maybe you already know how this poem is going to end

Poetry is the assumption that defies logic.

Sometimes I’ll wonder if my words are more of a speech

Than a verse blossoming like an afterthought to reason

When, little by little, that’s all there is on the line

And yet the only good thing about it is for you to know how it came up anyway against what you don’t find out:

Maybe you already know how this poem is going to end. Of course, you could be sensitive. Like it will mean

Leaning into the frame for what you could only shift back and forth, punctuating each with your own brand of a rhyme,

Which is a bit concise than a haiku. Like saying plenty with only very few, that will actually make

A difference, lines. In other words, handling it like a pro. Words implying more than what is going to be said.

It’s all too soon for myself to uncover it but—maybe you already know how this poem is going to end.

Maybe you already know, maybe, I know you will. Think of what you’re going to unplug out of it:

Poetry is the assumption that defies logic; echoing powerful thoughts, stirs the emotion, and transforms a soul.

If life begins at forty, what does it mean?

The Life Begins at Forty catchphrase could mean a renewed youth by which you have to embark on a journey that offers you the thrill of adventures, to try new things, and make a difference.

If life begins at 40, then I’ll be 4 years short to reach that level on June 21. But what does that catchphrase mean?

It was actually a song written in 1980 by John Lennon who turned 40 years old on that same year and as well as of his Beatles band mate Ringo Starr.

Then there was also this American self-help book titled Life Begins at Forty written in 1932 by Walter B. Pitkin. The book, in an attempt to provide a guide on how to achieve a happy existence even after reaching the age of 40, became the number 1 American bestselling non-fiction in 1933.

But what, in fact, is the message behind the catchphrase–life begins at forty–would like to convey?

It means different things to different people. Some people would like to use this catchphrase as a way of making them feel somewhat comfortable about their age.

And there are also some people who would like to consider it as the check point by which they can submit themselves for inspections and to choose to decide whether to continue on the path they had been following for the last 39 years or to look for something else or new.

Some people would be associating it with the beginning of the end; the onset of old age. But there also some who would like to link it to a renewed youth and vigor by which they have to embark on a journey that offers them the thrill of adventures, to try new things, and make a difference.

In my humble opinion, the catchphrase–life begins at forty–simply means a challenge; that a person, at 40 years of age, is mature enough to have the experience and skill he will need to do something about what he wants to do with the rest of his life. Although I would also like to say that, regardless of age, any person could achieve great accomplishments.

The great Italian painter Michelangelo painted one of his masterpieces, the Last Judgment, at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel when he was 60; it took him 6 years to finish it.

But it could as well be the best time, upon reaching 40, to have these questions you had to ask yourself about:

• What have you done in the last 39 years that is worth remembering?
• Now that you have reached 40, what will most matter to you now?
• If you could do it all over again, would you change anything?
• From your own perspective, what is the difference between to fully live and to simply just exist?
• What is the best thing that ever happened to you?
• What are those things you regret not doing something when you could have?
• What would you most prefer now, time or money?